Pictorius Neogenesis

In the print media world, Adobe PhotoShop has ruled the graphics subcontinent with an iron fist. This is not to say that its current or future grasp is as powerful as it once was. There are now many other worthy contenders to the throne of the graphics print media kingdom, including PhotoPaint from the Corel Draw Suite. Many graphics artists, now free from the singular bonds of using Macintosh systems to create their masterpieces due to the enormous improvement in PC hardware and software, have now jumped ship to cheaper, and arguably better, IBM compatible PCs. Even those remaining faithful to the Macintosh camp now also have a choice, as most major software developers write their applications for both platforms. The latest version of the Corel Draw Suite is available for the Mac, and shortly, for Linux Unix.

Enter the world of multimedia - screen based, delivered at lightning speed compared to print media, and capable of things that the print media base can only ever dream of - audio, video, interactivity and looming on the not-too-distant horizon - full sense, immersive, virtual reality. (That is, if modern science fiction writers, like those of old, can actually predict with reasonable certainly what is yet to come). Multimedia is a different universe to that of the print world, and as such, requires and demands different rules for it's creation, management distribution and use. Today's multimedia creators need a whole new tool set.

Adobe has recognised this and rallied - but in my opinion, in an entirely inappropriate manner. Multimedia producers who decide to stay with the Adobe camp must now purchase several different (and expensive) products separately. Adobe decided not to incorporate multimedia and web-specific features into PhotoShop but created the Image Ready and Image Styler products instead, to compensate for the severe lack of essential web- and multimedia-specific tools and features in PhotoShop. Yes, the separate products do interact well together, but the cost of owning all the necessary software components is extraordinary and certainly much more than many small or startup developers are willing to pay.

Corel on the other hand has taken an entirely different track and integrated new and improved features in all their existing products. This strategy enables multimedia developers and designers to continue using their favorite applications, while enjoying the cost benefits of a relatively inexpensive solution containing the entire suite of highly integrated and extremely useful, multimedia-aware programs. Do the sums yourself - calculate the total cost of ownership for the separate purchases of PhotoShop, Image Ready, Illustrator and anything else you might need and compare that with the cost of the Corel Draw suite - the difference is enormous. Even purchasing the suite as a bundle still costs over twice that of the Corel Suite (which actually includes more useful tools and applications).

My favorite tool for general graphics manipulation and production is Corel PhotoPaint. In the following sections I will show you why I have chosen it, what makes it the best overall tool and how you too can use it for both high resolution images for print and for ultra-optimized, bandwidth-friendly, colour-purposed web graphics. I hope you enjoy the tutorial and look forward to your questions, comments, debates or other communications on this topic. Use the email contact link at the base of each and I will try to answer all your messages.